I don't know how to push through

[Amzzz]

Hey guys, I'm a 17 year old who just kinda needs some support.  I do have a support group in my family but no one really understands why I feel the way I do, so maybe someone here relates? Got diagnosed a bit ago with having GAD and Social Anxiety with depressive symptoms, I also have Agoraphobia I think. I just have had a really hard time with school recently, I was coming top of my class and then I started taking Lexapro and my whole life started feeling like it was crashing down around me (turns out I'm allergic to it whoops, it made me 100x worse) Since then everything is soo crappy. I can't even go to school without breaking down, and I genuinely just can't put myself in any situations that scare me or else I freak. Everyone just tells me that I need to push through and separate my feelings from reality, but I don't know how. My HSC performances are coming up and I can't even be at school, I feel like I'm ruining my own life. I don't know how to push though, everything's so out of control and it's all my fault. It's like a switch went off, I was handling everything so well and now I can't handle anything. I don't know what to do.

[white knight]

Hi, welcome

I'm much older than yourself and have experienced most of what you have gone through. The good news is- you are not ruining your own life, your mental health issues are taking control of your stability and you might need to learn some ways to take back control, its not that hard to identify these remedies but will be challenges ongoing so best to accept that this is how Amzzz is, its how you are wired and try not to strive to be like everyone else. You are unique and wonderful, try telling yourself that because its true.

GAD is a serious illness that requires in most cases a multi ponged approach eg many changes or adaptations to reduce it and indeed in most cases GAD can be eliminated over time unlike many other health issues. So thats good news right? 

Meds- with any mental health issue taking meds prescribed should be monitored by your professional health carer. One medication might react, the next might be ideal and thats how it goes, plus dosages need to be checks and adjusted by their advice too. It can be enduring but is worth the patience to get it right.

Pushing through these periods of sadness and breaking down is all part of the rotten process. You need to have belief that this is often a cycle or a process that comes with your growing age group for you. Sometimes these emotional times is a cycle if some depression has developed in my experience. Imagine at 8pm every night your mind had a rubber band attached to it and it pulled you into a sad period, well that rubber band will do it at that part of your cycle and rather than try to remove that band, better to put in place obstacles to stop its effect. See where I'm coming from? The way we approach our mind issues is more approapriate then fighting it. It's called self care.

EG You are at school and you're not 100% emotionally. Better to go to the library and be alone that subject yourself to a group of friends that easily upset you. If you dont go to school as you are unwell, better to catch up on sleep and in the afternoon after a hot shower, do some study instead of losing the benefit of the whole day. 

This forum is so successful because people like you have family and friends that will never understand your illness symptoms. So "birds of a feather right"? Those that do understand have huge amounts of empathy and that is rare. So dont be hard on them, we are open here 24/7/365- yep even xmas day, so you can post anytime a new post or continue here and when we log on we see straight away that you need support. 

Here is some posts that I've written that could help. You only need to read the first post of each ok

https://forums.beyondblue.org.au/t5/anxiety/worry-worry-worry/td-p/87808

https://forums.beyondblue.org.au/t5/staying-well/depression-distraction-and-variety/td-p/275790

https://forums.beyondblue.org.au/t5/anxiety/anxiety-how-l-eliminated-it/td-p/183873

https://forums.beyondblue.org.au/t5/depression/depression-and-the-timing-of-motivation/td-p/149708

https://www.beyondblue.org.au/mental-health/wellbeing/relaxation-exercises

Reply anytime, would love to know your progress. 

TonyWK